The New “Commercial Agent” for our Railways.

Progress, Volume X, Issue 6, 1 February 1915, Page 211

The New “ Commercial Agent ” for our Railways.

The Right Thing—The Wrong Man

The motive-force required for Mr. E. H. Hiley’s railway improvement scheme is a three-and-a-quarter million loan. Without it, the Department will not be able to go far in securing more economical working of the lines. Ancient “coal-eaters” of locomotives, and expensively operated steep grades make big inroads on the revenue which no amount of efficient management can really minimise. A start was made with re-grading the worst pieces of main line several years ago, under the Hon. J. A. Miller’s direction, and the completion of the NewmarketPenrose duplication and regrading in the Waikato no doubt enabled the Department to cut off over an hour from the original timing of the Main Trunk expresses, besides enabling the Class A compounds to pull a heavier train. One feature of Mr. Hiley’s ambitious and much-needed scheme is reorganization of the traffic working branch of the railways. Hitherto it has been worked on the typical conservative lines of a Government Department. The railways are provided for the public, but there is no attempt to solicit business. Possibly the easy assumption is that the Department holds a monopoly, but the competiton of coastal trading steamers and commercial road vehicles may force it to wake up. Mi. Hiley s businesslike view is that with a concern heavily capitalised it must do the largest possible amount of business. If the traffic docs not come, it must be sought and encouraged. At first sight it may seem impossible to make business for a monopoly which it could not get without effort, but a live management will easily discover new sources of revenue, and if it listens sympathetically to the public demands it will always have some propositions to consider. A new official, the commercial agent, has been appointed for this work. He is to act as the sympathetic advocate of the public in any departmental consideration of new services, revision of rates or other improvement of the facilities for transport. A thoroughly experienced railway officer, Mr. T. W. Waite has been appointed. He knows the system from end to end, having served in many grades of the Traffic Department during his railway career of 32 years. Such a long departmental training must surely unfit Mr. Waite for the new role. He is saturated with the principles of economical railway working— Zealand style—and can scarcely be expected to change the mental habits of a lifetime within a month or two. Unless Mr. Waite undergoes some marvellous transformation we proP he l iat las 1 as . a “business booster,” an advocate of traffic-developing experiments and unprofitable vcnfaflnlJ h TL WIU grow t 0 a g-point, he will be a failure. the new general manager ought to have gone outside the Railway Department for his commercial agent if he wished to satisfy the railway’s ‘‘friend aVco«rt ” y arC *° b ° givC “ a really uscinl